30 Years of Friendship and Bookselling

At the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, in Albany, N.Y., book buyer Susan Taylor and children's manager Kathleen Carey are celebrating 30 years of bookselling together this year.

Taylor was already working at Waldenbooks in Latham in 1986 when Carey, fresh from high school graduation, started her first job there. Taylor taught her the ropes, then, when she moved on a few years later to the Book House, she recommended Carey to owner Susan Novotny as a children's lit expert. From chain stores to independents, from Handling Sin to Harry Potter (and countless book recommendations in-between), the pair have enjoyed 30 years of friendship and bookselling, happy to have spent most of it at the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, which is going strong after 42 years. They especially enjoy manning the Troy store--Market Block Books--on Troy Night Out. If you ask them how they're doing, they'll most likely reply, "Just ducky!"

Pictured: Susan Taylor and Kathleen Carey at Market Block books last year during Troy Night Out (wearing T-shirts from San Francisco's Green Apple Books on the Park), the other taken 30 years ago--exhausted from doing chain store inventory.